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Lebanon's Armenians Commemorate Genocide
BEIRUT, LEBANON, April 24 (FUTURE NEWS) -Lebanon's Armenian community has commemorated the 86th anniversary of the genocide of one and a half million Armenians by Ottoman Turks. In 1997 a number of countries, including Lebanon, Australia, and Cyprus, designated April 24 a day to commemorate the massacres.
Report: Lebanon's three main Armenian political parties, Ramghafar,
Tashnak and Hanshak, converged on Deir Malkunian theater in the Bourj
Hammoud area to commemorate the genocide of more than one million
Armenians on the hands of Turks. They reiterated support for Lebanon
and Syria in the face of Israeli threats. Some speakers accused
Turkey of supporting Israeli policies directed against Beirut and
Damascus. All over Lebanon, Armenian churches held services and
prayers for their slaughtered ancestors. In the north Lebanon town of
Bikfaya scouts laid a wreath near a monument built to remember the
genocide. The deliberate and systematic killing of the once more than
2-million strong Armenian community took place over just four years.
The beginning of the genocide can be traced back to the 1890s when
the Ottoman Empire's Sultan Abdul-Hamid II ordered the killing of up
to 200,000 Armenians to terrorize the population believed to be on
the brink of seeking independence back into submission. Europe
condemned the murders and in 1909 a group of Young Turks, including
future Turkish leaders, used the massacres to overthrow the sultan.
In 1915 between April and October more than one million Armenians
from Anatolia were deported from their homes. Those who were not
killed were automatically driven into the Syrian desert or deported
to camps in Raqqa, Aleppo, Ras al-Ain and Deir ez-Zor in Syria.
Hundreds of thousands of children, women and elderly people were
forced to take place in notorious "death marches," trekking through
the desert without food, water and shelter. Many settled in Lebanon.
Three-thousand years of Armenian history were wiped out. Only 16
countries and international bodies, including the United Nations,
recognize that one and a half million Armenians were the victims of
brutal massacres. Armenians and the Armenian diaspora have been
campaigning for legislation in the United States and Europe formally
recognizing the massacres took place. They are demanding a full
apology from Turkey and access to all its archives. Turkey denies the
genocide and has been enraged by moves to recognize the genocide,
including a French parliamentary vote acknowledging it took place.
The US Congress has considered a similar motion but backed down
after former President Bill Clinton warned it could damage ties with
Turkey, therefore compromising US security interests in the Middle
East. One of Turkey's fears is if the genocide is recognized
internationally Ankara could face claims for compensation from
Armenians around the world. Lebanon, were 150,000 Armenians strive
politically and economically, only recognized the genocide last year.
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives